Work-feeding mechanism



Aug. 17 1926.

E. E. LANE WORK FEEDING MECHANISM Filed Oct. 20

mere-n srraras ELMER L NE, FDANVERe.MA SAQEI I ,A S Q Q T HARRY BEC WHor ,BROQKLINE, MassAoHUsnr'rs. Y

WORK-BEEDlNG EeHA vrsM.

Application {iled October 20,1921. Serial No. 508,995.

Ihis invention relates to Work feeding mechanisms having been designedmore particularly .i'or skiving machines, though all or certain features"thereof mightbe found desirable in connection with machines fordifferent purposes.

In such feeding mechanisms a series of narrow toothed wheels issometimes employed for engaging the worln the edges of the teethextendingparallel to the axis of the wheels. hen this constructionisemployed for machines for skiving shoe stitiener parts such as are nowcommonly made of a felt composition impregnated with materials whichsoften under the influence of heat and which areigenerally friable, itis found that these wheels break oii particles from the edge or"the'chip removed by theskiving knife, and that instead of passing out ofthe machin withgthe chip they often pass along with the blank. Duringthe further treatment of the blanks within the machines these particlesoften stick to the face thereof and become partially incorporatedtherein forming projections whichmust be removed before incorporationinto the shoe to prevent them from showing through the upper, especiallywhen he lighter grades of upper leather are employed. For this reason,much time and attention is required to inspect the 'skived blanks andremove these particles and often they are not detected. until, they havebeen incorporated in the shoe. 1

Onefeature oi the present invention, therefore relates to a constructionoftoothed ieed wheel which does not cause the break ing off of suchparticles.

A further undesirable characteristic of the usual toothed wheels abovementioned is that as they are used the spaces between the teethbecomeclogged with matter from tne material ted causing them to act more :incmore as solid faced wheels, decreasing :lir eii'ective hold on theworkand neces- :ting frequent adjustments ot'the operarts oithe-machineforproper operurthcr ieature-of the invention relates a constructionwherebyth'e wheels shall seltcleanmgso that'the r. action shall besubstantially uniform at all times and frequent adjustments of themachine shall not be required.

(Jo-operating with the feed roll which car ies a plurality of thesetoothed wheels a recessed matrice roll is employed, the recess in theroll defining the portion of the blank to be removed in the skivingoperation. This invention further contemplates a novel construction bywhich the relative angular position of the recess maybe adjusted so thatthe cooperating rolls may cause the blanks to be properly presented tothe skivingkniife. i

Further objects andadvantageous details and combinations or" partswilf'appear a. more complete description of an embojdi ment ofthisinvention shown. in thef'a'cco'mpanying drawings in which i 77Figure 1 is a vertical detail view partly in section of the feedingmechanism.

FigureQ is a plan of one of thefeed disks or wheels formerly usedf 5Figure is an edge view of the same.

Figures t and {5 are views similar to FiguresQ and 3, but showing theimproved form of disk. 7 7

Figure 6 is a somewhat diagrammatic detail or a pair of adjacentteed-teeth of the improvedform.

Figure 7 is a diagrammatic}section on line? of Figure 6.

FignresS "and 9 are plan views of the chip skived from a box toestiffener .bglank when using the feed disks of Figures Zand 4:,respectively. v

' Referring to Figure 1 at A is indicated a matrice roll and at B a feedroll cooperating therewith tofeed the work to a 's'kivingknife (notshown). The matrice roll A comprises a sleeve 1 recessed as shown at 2to determine the shape-and eglgtent of material to be 'skived therefrom,the material being pressed against the roll and into the recess in amanner well known to those skilled in the art.

In alinement with the sleeve 1 are sleeves 3 and 4 jonrnaled in fixedbearings 5 and 6 on the machine frame. -The sleeves- 1,3, and 4 are heldfor simultaneous rotation by keys 7 positioned in one of these sleeves,

' wheel or gear 13 herein shown as sleeve 1 interfitting grooves in theends of the sleeves 3 and 4:. All these sleeves might be made integral,if desired, but as it is some times desirable to use recessed portionsof dinerentcontours and depths it is desirable for the sake of economyto make these sleeves separate.

Outwardly of the hearing 5 sleeve 8 is shown as provided with a pinion 8fixed thereto for a purpose immaterial to this in-- vention, andoutwardly of this pinion is a collar 9 having a series ofcircumferential graduations or index marks as shown at 10.

This collar is fixed to rotate with the sleeve 3. Cooperating with theinde marks is a pointer 11 fixed at one end to the bearing 5. The sleeve4, outwardly of the bearing is shouldered as at 12, and journaledoutwardly of this shoulder thereon is a driving .11 either side of thisgear are placed friction washers composed of fiber or other suitablematerial 14 and metallic collars or rings 15, the inner ring 15 aouttingagainst the shoulder 12.

A bolt 16 having a head 17 at one end is I passed through the varioussleeves which are loosely mounted thereon, and adjacent the outer ring15 is positioned a washer 18 bearing thereagainst. This end of the bolt16 is threaded at 19 for the reception of a nut 20. By tightening upthis nut the washer 18 is moved to clamp the rings 15, washers 14 andgear 13 against the shoulder 12, and to fix all these parts forsimultaneous rotation with the sleeves 1, 3, and at. These sleeves aredesigned to be rotated by means of a gear (not shown) meshing with thegear 13. Consequently the gear 13 is angu larly fixed relative to theoperative mechanisms of the machine. If it is desired to adjust theposition of the r cess 2 angularly it is only necessary to loosen thenut 20 and turn the sleeves the required distance which may be estimatedby noting the divisions on the index 10 which pass the point 11. Whenthe parts are in adjusted position, by tightening the nut 20 they arefixed to rotate in unison.

The feed roll B, between which and the roll A the work is passed,comprises sleeves 30 and 31 journaled in bearings 32 and parallel to thebearings 5 and 6, a bolt passing theret-hrough having a head at one endand a nut 36 threaded on its opposite end. As shown this bolt isconnected in the sleeve 31 in a similar manner to the bolt 16 and thesleeve 4, although this specific connection is immaterial to this rollsince no rotative adjustment thereof is necessary. interposed betweenthe inner ends of the sleeves 30 and 31 and keyed to rotate therewith isa series of toothed feed wheels comprising thin disks spaced apart bymeans of washers 26 placed there-between, washers 37 having keys 38fitting corresponding ways in the ends of the sleeves and 31 beingemployed to lock the parts for simultaneous rotation.

The type of feed disk or wheel which has been commonly used in similarlocations in other machines is that shown in Figures 2 and 3, in whicheach of the wheels or disks as 25 has a series of peripheral teeth 40having their edges extending parallel to the axis of the disk as 41. henfeed wheels of this type are used the edges 41 cut into the material fedso that the chip skived off when making box toe stifieners appears substantially as shown in Figure 8. It will be noted in this figure thatalong the flatter edge of the chip, which edge is arranged transverselyto the direction of feed asthe blank passes through the machine'and isthe last part of the blank to pass between therolls, portions are brokenoff, due both'to the cutting effect of the teeth and the effort tendingto feed the blank forward, such particles being indicated at a. ticlesare liable to be carried along with the skived blanks and to beincorporated in the surface thereof. Particularly where these blanks areafterwards ironed or r lled these particles are liable to becomepartially embedded in the material in such a way as to project somewhatabove the surface thereof so that if they are not removed before theblanks are inserted in the shoe projections are shown through the upperleather indicating the presence of these particles and seriouslydisfiguring the shoe.

In order to overcome this diihculty the feed disks in the presentconstruction have their teeth out out of parallelism with the axis ofthe feed roll as shown in Figures 1, t, and 5, these teeth beingindicated at 42, their narrow cutting edges a being inclined from thenormal to the plane of the disk faces, or in other words, to the axis ofthe roll. These narrow edges or w rlz-engaging portions being formed onthe pe ripheries of the disks define a cylinder, the surface of whichincludes them all and tothe adjacent surface elements of which they havea definite oblique relation, this re a- .tion being uniform for thecutting edges of any one disk. V hen disks of this type are used themarkings on the skived. chip appear as shown in Figure 9 in which theyare inclined from tne normal or transversely to the direction of feed ofthe work. Since the flatter edge of the blank is arranged transverselyto the direction of feed through the machine, the teeth on the feedingroll ill exert pressure on the blank along spaced lines arrangeddiagonally or obliquely to the edge of the blank. Itis preferable toemploy a series of such wheels the teeth of adjacent wheels beinginclined oppositely so that the obliquity of each series of linesimpressed on a blank is the reverse of that of These par-' the nextadjacent series, and a herring bone or zigzag effect is produced. Thisminimizes any tendency of the inclinedteeth to feed the stock laterallyas any tendency of certain wheels'to move the work in one directionlaterally is counteracted by an equal thrust of teeth oppositelyinclined. With this construction it is found that the par ticles are notbroken off from the edge of the chip since if they are near enough tothe edge to cause a decided weakening at that point their inclinedposition causes them to cut through at one end, the material yielding topermit the teeth to pass without breaking.

With the teeth as constructed in Figure 2 it has been found thatportions of the material fed gradually fill up the spaces between theteeth so that the disks become in efiect solid and do not have the samefeeding efiect as when the teeth are clear. Because of this it isfrequently necessary to adjust the relative position of operative partsof the machine to cause the skiving to be effected where desired or totake out and clean the disks. To overcome this clifficulty the spaces orrecesses between the teeth may be cut deeper at one side face of thedisk than at the other, this being shown somewhat diagrammatically inFigures 6 and 7. This may be accomplished if desired by running a drilldiagonally through the disk adjacent the teeth roots as shown in Figure7. By this means the space at the deeper side of the wheel isnotnarrower than that of the other side as would be the. case if the teethfaces were of V formation. This construction allows a ready escape forthe material lodging between the teeth, the pressure of the material atthe outer edges thereof causing any such matter to be pushed downwardlyand laterally from between the teeth. As the washers 26 are of smallerdiameter than the feed disks sufficient room is allowed laterally forthe escape of such matter. This action. however, is further assisted bya series of fingers, shown in section at in Figure 1, which extendbetween the disks and press the material fed between the rolls againstthe matrice roll so that it is forced within the re cess 2. As the feeddisks rotate it is evident that these fingers scrape off the materialescaping from between the teeth and cause it to pass outwardly of themachine with the chip.

Having thus described an embodiment of the invention it should beevident that many changes and modifications might be made thereinwithout departing from its spirit or scope as defined by the appendedclaims.

I claim:

1. A feed member comprising a series of coaxial spaced disks havingwork-engaging portions defining a cylinder, the work-engaging portionsof each individual disk hav ing a common oblique relation to theadjacent surface elements of the cylinder.

2. A feed member comprising a series of coaxial spaced disks havingwork-engaging portions defining a cylinder, the work-engaging portionsof each individual disk having a common oblique relation to the adjacent surface elements of the cylinder, and the work-engaging portionsof successive disks being in zigzag relation.

3. A feed member comprising a series of coaxial spaced disks having ontheir peripheries spaced work-engaging portions defining a cylinder, thework-engaging portions of each individual disk having a common obliquerelation to the adjacent surface elements of the cylinder, the spacesbetween successive work-engaging portions of any disk being of unequaldepth at the opposite faces of the disk.

a. A feed member comprising a series of coaxial spaced disks having ontheir peripheries spaced work-engaging portions defining a cylinder andhaving recesses between successive work-engaging portions, thework-engaging portions of each individual disk having a common obliquerelation to the adjacent surface elements of the cylinder, thework-engaging portions of successive disks being in zigzag relation, andsaid recesses being deeper at one face of the disk than at the other.

5. Apparatus for feeding friable blanks comprising spaced work-engagingmembers, each said member having means for engaging the blanks in aseries of short lines,

said series extending in the direction of feed,

and said lines of a series being parallel to each other and oblique tothe direction of feed.

6. The method of feeding a friable blank having an ed e arrangedtransversely of the direction of feed, which comprises exerting feedingpressure on said blank along series of short parallel lines oblique tosaid edge, each series being spaced from the other series and extendingin the direction of feed.

7. The method of feeding a friable blank having a relatively thin edgearranged transversely of the direction of feed, which comprises applyingfeeding pressure to the blank in spaced parallel series of contactlines, each line being oblique. to said edge and parallel to the otherlines in its series, and the obliquity of the lines of each series beingthe reverse of that of the next adjacent series.

In testimony whereof I have affixed my signature.

ELMER E. LANE.

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